Internationally renown lecturer and celebrity chiropractic physician Dr. James Stoxen ACA has some invaluable advice: take off your shoes when you run!

Chicago-based Dr. Stoxen, also known as the Barefoot Running Doctor, will focus on detailing how footwear accelerates the aging process when he addresses the 8th Malaysian Conference and Exhibition on Anti-Aging, Aesthetic and Regenerative Medicine and 1st International Congress on Anti-Aging, Aesthetic and Regenerative Medicine at the Shangri-La Hotel at 11 Jalan Sultan Ismail, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, April 30 at 9:00am – May 2 at 12:00pm.

Over 20 years, during the course of developing the Stoxen Human Spring Approach™ — a treatment and training regime to rectify and prevent musculoskeletal damage and restore peak biomechanic performance — Dr. Stoxen has been one of the most vocal global advocates of the benefits of barefoot exercise namely barefoot running.

Recent studies, including work into the biomechanics of foot strikes at Harvard University’s Skeletal Biology Lab, has added further weight to Dr. Stoxen’s extensively tested contention that the daily restriction of footwear as a binding device weakens the supportive structures of the foot often triggering a domino effect in our body that has a devastating impact.

Based on the laws of physics & engineering and served with a healthy portion of common sense, Dr. Stoxen has, to much acclaim, outlined his Human Spring Theory to just under 50,000 medical physicians and scientists from 60 countries at ACME medical conferences in recent years, including the Royal College of Physicians in London, the SENS Conference in Cambridge, England and the International Bangkok Congress on Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine (BCAARM).

Put simply, Dr. Stoxen views the body as giant spring. At its foundation is the spring in the arch of foot. Should that lock, as is common, the rest of the body (the spring system) is hauled out of alignment, leading to abnormalities in movement, strain on muscles, joints and bones and wear and tear that promotes inflammation, the single biggest accelerant in aging.

Footwear, as a binding device, restricts motion and promotes rather than prevents locking of the spring mechanism.

From Barefoot to Bedridden (The Current Standard of Care)

Unfortunately, for millions, a lifetime of biomechanic evolution follows this path: barefoot play and running as a youth, to all-day shoes as teens and adults, then motion control footwear and/or orthotics when the spring suspension system weakens and the human spring locks. Next orthopedic shoes are medically necessary to walk pain free; preceding a cane, a walker and quite often a wheelchair and/or the prospect of being bedridden.

The current standard of care and the bulk of fitness and health instruction support perpetuate this downward spiral. Dr Stoxen’s approach reverses it.

The benefits of shedding shoes as often as feasible, or at the very least, ensuring correctly fitted footwear is worn, are enormous — life-changing. What’s more, exercising without shoes, multiplies this effect.

Dr Stoxen was one of the first doctors to lecture at an ACME accredited medical conference on barefoot running and in June, 2010, at age 49, opted to take up running — sans shoes — to demonstrate its long-term benefits.

Hitting the streets of Chicago, the Barefoot Running Doctor ran 350 miles and contested three 10K races barefoot on asphalt streets in 2010 noticing a major improvement in his overall health and no pain in any area of his body. His goal is to run a half marathon and possibly a barefoot marathon in 2011.

Dr. James Stoxen, D.C., owns and operates Team Doctors Treatment and Training Center. and Team Doctors Sports Medicine and Anti-aging Products. He has been the meet and team chiropractor at many national and world championships. He has been inducted into the prestigious National Hall of Fame, the Personal Trainers Hall of Fame and appointed to serve on the prestigious, Global Advisory Board of The International Sports Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the Advisory Board for the American Board of Anti-Aging Health Practitioners. Dr. Stoxen is a sought after speaker, internationally having organized and /or given over 1000 live presentations around the world.(full bio)